


Inception

by Craftybadger1234



Series: Missing and odd moments: Seventh Year [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Humor, Memory Alteration, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-01 17:50:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16289081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Craftybadger1234/pseuds/Craftybadger1234
Summary: Halloween 1981 - Chris takes his brother Jonathan trick-or-treating and they run into Voldemort.I tagged this seventh year because that's the book when we see what happened on the night Harry's parents died. Chris Nolan isn't actually at Hogwarts or anything. I'm pretty sure he's a muggle.





	Inception

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to CleopatraIsMyName for looking this over for me, and for the awesome idea of having a horror/thriller writer be the one that ran into Voldemort. :)
> 
> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ch 17: _”’Nice costume, mister!’ He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: then the child turned and ran away…”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Inception - the establishment or starting point of an institution or activity_

Chris dragged his younger brother down the pavement, trying to squeeze in a few more houses before Jonathan made them return home. What child turned down free sweets? But Jonathan was five and preferred staying home after dark.

“I don’t want any more!” Jonathan whined repeatedly.

“All right, fine!” Chris scrunched up his face and sighed. “How about you wait here, and I go to that last house,” he pointed just ahead of them, “and then we’ll turn for home. That okay?”

“Fine. I’ll wait here.” He held his bag tight and looked around at the other children in costume.

Chris noticed a lot of adults in costume as well. He was returning from the porch of the last house when he heard his brother call out, “Nice costume, mister!” Jonathan stiffened suddenly, and then ran as fast as he could into Chris’s waiting arms. When Chris looked up, the strange man in the cloak was already gone. A chill ran down his spine.

“Hey… Jonathan…” Chris held tight to his brother, who was shaking in his arms. He rubbed down Jonathan’s back, trying to soothe the boy that was beginning to cry. “It’s all right. It was just a costume. Look, we’re going home, all right? Let’s go.”

Holding his hand with a death grip, Chris led them home quickly. Their mother took one look at Jonathan and declared them unable to trick-or-treat alone ever again. That was fine with Chris. Chaperoning his brother had been a bore, right up until they were both terrified by the stranger.

In the days that followed, Jonathan didn’t say much at all. He only stared off into space and mumbled responses to questions no one asked. Finally, their mother took him to see a specialist. They returned two hours later, with Jonathan back to his regular, cheery self. 

And the memory of the man they’d seen while trick-or-treating was… gone. Entirely.

“How can you not remember?” Chris asked, exasperated that the traumatic event was simply gone. “The man in the cloak. You saw him and ran. You were terrified for days!” He turned to their mother, “Aren’t you worried he can’t remember?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “What man?”

Chris just stared at her. “What do you mean, ‘what man’? The man in the cloak! That he saw trick-or-treating!”

“He didn’t go trick or treating this year,” she said with a smile. “You went on your own this year and brought him back a little bag of candy. You’re so thoughtful. Such a good brother.” Her smile grated on his nerves, even more so when she reached out to ruffle his hair. “Why don’t you two go play while I get dinner together?”

The boys went up to their room and flopped onto their beds. “You really don’t remember the man in the cloak?” Chris asked.

“No,” his brother said quietly. “But I think maybe it’s best I don’t know. If I was as scared as you say.”

“What did you tell the specialist?” 

Jonathan’s face scrunched up. “Can’t remember really. I think she called in another lady to talk to me too? But I do remember she gave me a lolly at the end because I was a good boy.”

“That’s nice…” Chris said absently. 

His mind raced with possibilities and the more he thought on it, the more outrageous it became. Was it possible to extract _actual_ memories from a person? What if you could implant new ones? Clearly something like that had happened to his mother and brother. How else to explain that neither of them remembered Halloween night?

Did they make him drink a poison? Maybe shoot his brain with some kind of laser? Did they put him to sleep? Can you physically remove memories, like a tumour? What do you do with an extracted memory? Was there a whole group of people that stole memories and sold them to the highest bidder? Sort of a black market for memories?

Part of him was terrified at the thought, and part of him was thrilled with the idea. It was almost like something out of a mad, action flick.

Someone should make a film like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Christopher Nolan directed _Inception_ in 2010. It was an original screenplay of his about memories being manipulated while in a dream state. I didn’t really like it but millions of other people did.
> 
> Quick note about accuracy in my fic - Chris Nolan was born in London in 1970 to a British father (who would say ‘sweets’) and an American mother (who would say ‘candy’).


End file.
